Installing Microsoft DNS Service
If you already have Microsoft Domain Name System (DNS) installed and configured or you are planning to use other DNS server software you may not read this document.
On "Add/Remove Windows Components":
- Tick "Indexing Service" if you are planning to provide it to your customers.
- Highlight "Networking Services" and click "Details..." button
- Tick "Domain Name System (DNS)" checkbox only.
- Click "OK" button to return to the root features list.
- Click "Next" button and complete features installation.
Configuring Microsoft DNS Service
Before starting configuring DNS Server you should have the domain name registered. We will be using sample "abc.com" domain name in all examples below.\
When configuring your DNS Server, please replace "abc.com" with your registered domain name.
Open "DNS" snap-in (click "Start -> Administrative Tools -> DNS").
- Right-click on the node with the name equal to your computer name and select "Properties".
- On "Interfaces" tab select "Only the following IP addresses" option and specify at least two IP addresses from your server's IP addresses pool.
- Click on the "Advanced" tab and tick the checkboxes as on the picture below:
Creating "Master" DNS Zone
In order to get your personal Name Server records you should create at least one DNS primary zone. You might also need this zone to expose DotNetPanel Portal to your customers under appropriate URL, e.g. http://panel.abc.com/.
- In "DNS" snap-in right-click "Forward Lookup Zones" node and select "New Zone...". With the help of wizard create a new primary zone "abc.com".
- Create two "NS1" and "NS2" "A" records pointing to two different IP addresses.
- Right click "abc.com" node and select "Properties". Click "Name Servers" tab and add references to the created name servers "ns1.abc.com" and "ns2.abc.com".
- Switch to "Start of Authority (SOA)" tab and change SOA record settings.
Serial number should be in the format of "YYYYMMDDNN" where YYYY - current year, MM - current month, DD - current day and NN - this number should start with 01 each new day and be incremented by 1 each time you change DNS zone.
Primary server is the name of the "NS1" Name Server created on the previous step.
Specify responsible person value which is an e-mail of the person that can be contacted in case of any questions regarding current DNS zone.
Change time settings as shown on the picture above.
- Click "OK" to save your changes and close the dialog.
- Add other zone records:
- Four "A" records "*", "ftp", "mail", "www" with the corresponding IP addresses
- One MX record pointing to "mail.abc.com." with 10 priority
- One TXT record with "v=spf1 a mx -all" which is so-called "SPF" record.
The complete zone should look like on the picture below:
Close "DNS" snap-in.